Jim Lee

Jim Lee
Jim Lee at the CBLDF Drink and Draw at San Diego Comic Con 2007.
Born	August 11, 1964 (1964-08-11) (age 46) Seoul, South Korea
Nationality	Korean-American
Area(s)	Writer, Artist, Publisher
Notable works	All Star Batman and Robin Batman: Hush Superman: For Tomorrow WildC.A.T.s X-Men, vol. 2
Awards	Harvey Award, 1990 Inkpot Award, 1992 Wizard Fan Award, 1996, 2002, 2003

Jim Lee (Korean: 이용철, born August 11, 1964) is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men. X-Men #1, the 1991 spinoff series premiere that Lee penciled and co-wrote with Chris Claremont, remains the best-selling comic book of all time, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

In 1992 Lee and several other artists formed their own publishing company, Image Comics, to publish their creator-owned titles, with Lee publishing his titles through his studio, Wildstorm Productions, such as WildC.A.T.s and Gen¹³. Eschewing the role of publisher in order to return to illustration, Lee sold Wildstorm in 1998 to DC Comics, where he continued to run Wildstorm as a DC imprint until DC ended Wildstorm in 2010, as well as illustrating successful books set in DC's main fictional universe, such as the year-long "Batman: Hush" and "Superman: For Tomorrow" storylines. On February 18, 2010, Jim Lee was announced as the new Co-Publisher of DC Comics with Dan DiDio, both replacing Paul Levitz.

He has received a Harvey Award, Inkpot Award and three Wizard Fan Awards in recognition for his work.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Rise to fame at Marvel Comics 2.2 Image Comics and WildStorm, return to Marvel 2.3 Move to DC Comics 2.4 Other work 3 Technique and materials 4 Awards 5 Bibliography 5.1 DC 5.2 Image 5.3 Marvel 5.4 Marvel/Image 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, on August 11, 1964. At the age of four he and his family emigrated to the United States, and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri,^[1][2] where he enjoyed a typical middle-class childhood.^[2] Lee's St. Louis Country Day School classmates predicted in his senior yearbook that he would found his own comic book company.^[1][2] Despite this, Lee seemed resigned to following his father's career in medicine, attending Princeton University to study psychology, with the intention of becoming a medical doctor.^[2][3]

[edit] Career

[edit] Rise to fame at Marvel Comics

In 1986, as he was preparing to graduate, Lee took an art class that reignited his love of drawing, and led to his rediscovery of comics at a time when seminal works such as Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen spurred a renaissance within the American comics industry.^[2] After obtaining his psychology degree,^[3] he decided to postpone his medical degree, and earned the reluctant blessing of his parents by allotting himself one year to succeed, vowing that he would attend medical school if he did not break into the comic book industry in that time. He submitted samples to various publishers, but did not find success until he met editor Archie Goodwin at a New York comic book convention. Goodwin invited Lee to Marvel Comics, where the aspiring artist received his first assignment by editor Carl Potts, who hired him to pencil the mid-list series Alpha Flight, seguéing from that title in 1989 to Punisher: War Journal.^[2][4] Lee's work on the Punisher: War Journal was inspired by artists like Frank Miller, David Ross, Kevin Nowlan, and Whilce Portacio, as well as Japanese manga.^[4]

In 1989 Lee filled in for regular illustrator Marc Silvestri on Uncanny X-Men #248 and did another guest stint on issues #256 through #258 as part of the "Acts of Vengeance" storyline, eventually becoming the series' ongoing artist with issue #267, following Silvestri's departure. During his stint on Uncanny Lee first worked with inker Scott Williams, who would become a long-time collaborator. During his run on the title, Lee co-created the character Gambit with long-time X-Men writer Chris Claremont.

Lee's artwork quickly gained popularity in the eyes of enthusiastic fans, which allowed him to gain greater creative control of the franchise. In 1991, Lee helped launch a second X-Men series simply called X-Men (volume 2), not only as the artist, but also as co-writer with Claremont. X-Men #1 (vol 2) is still the best-selling comic book of all-time with sales of over 8.1 million copies (and nearly $7 million), according to a public proclamation by the Guinness Book of World Records at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.^[5][6] The sales figures were generated in part by publishing the issue with five different variant covers, four of which showed different characters from the book that combined into a triptych image, and a fifth, gatefold cover that combined these four, large numbers of which were purchased by retailers, who anticipated fans and speculators who would buy multiple copies in order to acquire a complete collection of the covers.^[7] Lee designed new character uniforms for the series, including those worn by Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, Psylocke and Storm. He also created the villain Omega Red.

[edit] Image Comics and WildStorm, return to Marvel

Enticed by the idea of being able to exert more control over his own work, in 1992, Lee accepted the invitation to join six other artists who broke away from Marvel to form Image Comics, which would publish their creator-owned titles.^[3] Lee's group of titles was christened Wildstorm Productions, and published Lee's initial title WildC.A.T.s, which Lee pencilled and co-wrote, and other series created by Lee in the same shared universe. The other major series of the initial years of Wildstorm, for which Lee either created characters, co-plotted or provided art for, included Stormwatch, Deathblow and Gen¹³.

In 1993, Lee and his close friend, Valiant Comics publisher Steve Massarsky, arranged a Valiant-Image Comics crossover miniseries called Deathmate, in which the Valiant characters would interact with those of Wildstorm, and of Lee's fellow Image partner, Rob Liefeld. The miniseries would consist of four "center books", (each one denoted by a color rather than an issue number), two each produced by the respective companies, plus a prologue and epilogue book. Wildstorm produced Deathmate Black, with Lee himself contributing to the writing. He also illustrated the covers for that book, the Deathmate Tourbook and the prologue book, as well as contributing to the prologue's interior inks. The assignment was given to Valiant creators against their better judgment, in particular Editor-in-chief Bob Layton, who complained about Image's inability to meet their deadlines. Deathmate Black, in particular, came out a few months after Valiant's Blue and Yellow installments, which had come out and time, and Liefeld's Deathmate Red was so late that Layton flew to California to procure that chapter personally, and ink it himself in an Anaheim hotel room. Layton sees Deathmate's lateness as one of Valiant's "unmitigated disasters", and views that project as the beginning of the speculator collapse of the 1990s.^[8]

Wildstorm would expand its line to include other ongoing titles whose creative work was handled by other writers and artists, some of which were spinoffs of the earlier titles, or properties owned by other creators, such as Whilce Portacio's Wetworks. As publisher, Lee later also expanded his comics line creating two publishing imprints of Wildstorm, Homage and Cliffhanger (that years later merged and were replaced by a single Wildstorm Signature imprint), to publish creator-owned comics by some selected creators of the US comics industry.

Lee and Rob Liefeld, another Marvel-illustrator-turned-Image-founder, returned to Marvel in 1996 to participate in a reboot of several classic characters; the project was known as Heroes Reborn. While Liefeld reworked Captain America and The Avengers, Lee plotted Iron Man and wrote and illustrated The Fantastic Four. Halfway through the project, Lee's studio took over Liefeld's two titles, finishing all four series.

Lee returned to Wildstorm, where he would publish series such as The Authority and Planetary, as well as Alan Moore's imprint, America's Best Comics. Lee himself wrote and illustrated a 12-issue series called Divine Right, in which an internet slacker inadvertently manages to download the secrets of the universe, and is thrown into a wild fantasy world.

[edit] Move to DC Comics

Because he felt his role as publisher interfered with his role as an artist, Lee left Image Comics and sold Wildstorm to DC Comics in late 1998, enabling to focus once again on art.^[2][3] In 2003 he collaborated on a 12-issue run on Batman with writer Jeph Loeb. "Hush" became a runaway sales success. He followed this up in 2004 with by illustrating "For Tomorrow", a 12-issue story in Superman by writer Brian Azzarello, although this did not replicate the earlier success. In 2005, Lee teamed with Frank Miller on the new series All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, a series plagued by delays.

Lee continued to run Wildstorm as Editorial Director, sometimes working on both DC and Wildstorm properties simultaneously. In September 2006, Jim Lee returned to WildC.A.T.s with Grant Morrison as the writer, pencilling both WildC.A.T.s and All Star Batman and Robin, both of which were characterized by publication delays. The gap between All-Star Batman and Robin #4 and #5 was one year, and to date, only one issue of WildC.A.T.s (Vol. 4) has been published. Lee drew alternative cover art for the Infinite Crisis series.

In February 2006 it was announced that Lee would be involved with the concept art for the upcoming DC Comics MMORPG, DC Universe Online.^[3] In 2008, Lee was named the Executive Creative Director of the forthcoming game, which at that time was expected to be released in 2009.^[9]

In February 2010 Lee was named alongside Dan DiDio as Co-Publisher of DC Comics.^[10][11][12] According to Lee, this does not indicate another move away from the creative side of comics, as he will not only have greater creative involvement in the entire DC line, but be illustrating a new monthly title, Dark Knight: Boy Wonder, a rebranded conclusion to the story he and Frank Miller began in All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.^[2][13] He will also supply the painted art over Giuseppe Camuncoli's layouts in Batman: Europa #1, which debuts in January 2011.^[14] DC announced they were ending the Wildstorm imprint in September 2010.^[15]

[edit] Other work

Jim Lee provided artwork for the album booklet for Daughtry's 2009 album Leave This Town.

[edit] Technique and materials

Lee is known to use F lead for his pencil work.^[16][17] While inking his own pencils on Punisher: War Journal, Lee began using a crowquill nib for the first time.^[4]

In talking about the artist's work ethic, Lee has said, "Sometimes I wonder if we ever really improve as artists or if the nirvana derived from completing a piece blinds us enough to love what we have created and move on to the next piece. If we could see the work as it is, with years of reflection in the here and now, how many images would end up in the trash rather than on the racks?"^[18]

[edit] Awards

• Harvey Award — Best New Talent, 1990
• Inkpot Award, 1992
• Wizard Fan Award — Favorite Penciller, 1996, 2002, 2003

[edit] Bibliography

Comics work (interior pencil art) includes:

[edit] DC

• All-Star Batman and Robin #1-10 (2005–08)
• Coup d'état: Sleeper (Authority) (2004)
• Batman #609-619 (2002–03)
• Batman: Gotham Knights (Batman Black and White) #1 (2000)
• Flinch #1 (1999)
• Justice League of America, vol. 4, #0 -one page only- (2006)
• Just Imagine Stan Lee with Jim Lee creating Wonder Woman (2001)
• 100 Bullets #26 (among other artists) (2001)
• Orion (Tales of the New Gods) #12 (2001)
• Robotech #0 (2002)
• Superman, vol. 2, #204–215 (2004–05)
• Superman/Batman #26 (2-pages, among other artists) (2006)
• Weird War Tales, one-shot (2000)
• Dark Knight:Boy Wonder#1-6 (2011)

[edit] Image

• Darker Image (Deathblow) #1-2 (1993)
• Deathblow (full pencils): #1-3; (along with Trevor Scott): #0 (1993–96)
• Deathmate #Black (among other artists) (1993)
• Divine Right #1–12 (1997–99)
• Gen¹³ #0, 4-7 (1994)
• Grifter/Shi, 2-part miniseries, #1 (along with Travis Charest) (1996)
• Moonlight and Ashes: Fire From Heaven, 2-part miniseries, #2 (1996)
• Savage Dragon #13 (1994)
• StormWatch #47 (1997)
• WildC.A.T.s (full pencils): #1-13; (among other artists): #32, 50 (1992–98)

[edit] Marvel

• Alpha Flight #51, 53, 55-62, 64 (1987–88)
• Daredevil Annual #5 (1989)
• Fantastic Four, vol. 2, #1–6 (1996–97)
• Iron Man, vol. 2, #6 (among other artists) (1997)
• Marvel Comics Presents (Namor) #33 (1989)
• Punisher Annual #2 (1989)
• Punisher/Nick Fury: Rules of the Game (1991)
• Punisher: War Journal #1–13, 17-19 (1988–89)
• Solo Avengers (Mockingbird) #1 (1987)
• Stryfe's Strike File #1 (among other artists) (1993)
• Uncanny X-Men #248, 256–258, 267–277 (1990–91)
• X-Men, vol. 2, #1–11 (1991–92)

[edit] Marvel/Image

• WildC.A.T.s/X-Men: The Silver Age (1997)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jim Lee

• Jim Lee at the Comic Book DB
• Jim Lee on deviantART
• Jim Lee on MySpace
• Jim Lee on Twitter
• Jim Lee on YouTube
• Sun of Gelatometti - A blog of multiple artists, including Jim Lee
• Audio Interview - Comic Geek Speak - April 27, 2007

Preceded by Marc Silvestri	Uncanny X-Men artist (with Whilce Portacio from 1991-1992) 1990–1992	Succeeded by Brandon Peterson
Preceded by Chris Claremont	X-Men (vol. 2) writer 1992 (with Chris Claremont)	Succeeded by Fabian Nicieza
Preceded by Tom DeFalco	Fantastic Four writer/artist 1996–1997 (with Brandon Choi)	Succeeded by Scott Lobdell (writer) Brett Booth (artist)
Preceded by Terry Kavanagh	Iron Man writer 1996–1997 (with Scott Lobdell)	Succeeded by Jeph Loeb
Preceded by Jeph Loeb	Iron Man writer 1997 (with Jeph Loeb)	Succeeded by Kurt Busiek
Preceded by Scott McDaniel	Batman artist 2002–2003	Succeeded by Eduardo Risso
Preceded by Scott McDaniel	Superman artist 2004–2005	Succeeded by Ed Benes
Preceded by Paul Levitz	Publisher of DC Comics (with Dan DiDio) 2010–present	Succeeded by current

Persondata
Name	Lee, Jim
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1964-08-11
Place of birth	Seoul, South Korea
Date of death
Place of death